


Man with a Plan

by KaitanISB021



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Timelines, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Spoilers, Bucky Barnes Feels, Bucky Barnes Gets a Hug, Bucky Barnes Needs a Hug, Gen, M/M, POV Bucky Barnes, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Sam Wilson Is a Good Bro, Steve Rogers Also Needs a Smack Upside the Head, Steve Rogers Feels, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-29
Updated: 2019-04-29
Packaged: 2020-02-09 22:06:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18647011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaitanISB021/pseuds/KaitanISB021
Summary: **ENDGAME SPOILERS**This is a canon-compliant, after-the-credits resolution of a central relationship. Not a shippy fic, but doesn't preclude the ship, either.





	Man with a Plan

**Author's Note:**

> Don't read this fic if you haven't seen the movie. Seriously. Don't.  
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“How’d you know?” Sam said quietly, sliding into the seat next to him. “Because clearly you knew. Like, the second he didn’t show up, you knew. And I heard what you said before he left. You said you’d miss him before y’all did that whole”--Sam waved his hand around—“Steve-and-Bucky thing. So, did he tell you he was gonna do this?”

Bucky was sitting alone, looking out at the lake from the deck of Stark’s cabin. He could hear the loons. It was peaceful. He just wanted peace. Finally, finally, he could feel it as a possibility.

But he needed Sam to understand, of all people. He needed someone to understand what Steve did and why. Needed him to understand if he was taking on the shield, to know what it might mean to carry that weight, to avoid being crushed by it. 

He paused to gather his thoughts. This man was one of Steve’s closest friends in this era, but how well could he know him, really? 

“He told me he went to see Peggy, back in the old folks’ home...”

“Yeah, we don’t really call them that anymore...” Sam mumbled, but Bucky’s glare and arched eyebrow stopped him. “Sorry. Force of habit, man, getting on your case. Go ahead.”

“Yeah. Anyway. He told me that, you know, when she was lucid, that she said she was sorry he didn’t get to live his life like she got to live hers. And he told me that when she said that....When she said that, the only thing he could think about was the fact that I didn’t get to live mine. And that it was his fault.”

He could see Sam shaking his head out of the corner of his eye. 

“I tried to tell him, Sam, so many times. He made that sad puppy face when I went back in cryo to heal, like it was his fault. And after, it came up every time he visited me in Wakanda. Every damned time. He couldn’t have known I’d survive that fall. He couldn’t have known what they’d do to me. That idiot....” He could feel himself heating up. “You know he was going to let me kill him on that helicarrier? He tell you that?”

Sam paused for a moment, then shook his head again. “Not surprised, really, though. He fought the US government and half the Avengers for you, man. Not surprised he would let you kill him, if that’s what it took to save you.”

Bucky shook his head in exasperation. “Yeah. And save me for what? Save me to know I’d actually killed him?” It was all coming back now. His peace, shattered again, shattered by those sad blue eyes and that jutted-out jaw. “He’s a stubborn ass, is what he is. Stubborn since the day he was born. Even before the shield.... That damned shield just made it worse. Like a...like a monkey with his hand caught in the cookie jar, won’t let go of the damned cookie to get his damned hand out. He used to get into fights all the time, even though he always lost, just because he was there and he thought it needed doing. Couldn’t let anything go. Couldn’t let someone else do it if he could throw himself at a problem, you know? He made it into the Army out of sheer force of will, a bag of bones and lung disease and righteousness. He dropped behind enemy lines in a damned costume, Sam.”

He took a deep breath. “So you know what he planned to do in this....this other life he lived?”

Sam cocked an eyebrow. “Marry the love of his life?”

Bucky barked out a humorless laugh. “Sure. Sure, he did that. But he did that on the way to something else. Oh, he had a plan. Always the man with a damned plan. He told me he didn’t want me to die in the war, or he would have gone back to before the serum. He didn’t want to live in a world where Schmidt and the squid Nazis won the war, so he had to let me fall, get to where he was sure he took Schmidt down. But he worked it all out, see. No, he went back for Peggy, sure, because he was sweet on her—but also because he knew she could help him save me, Sam. Take down Hydra, keep it out of SHIELD, all to save me. To carve out a life for me where I didn’t have to suffer through what Hydra did to me. He lived a whole damned life in another timeline to save me.” 

They both sat with that for a moment. He could feel the lump in his throat. He didn’t have a fire escape in Brooklyn anymore. Didn’t have a wall across from him to throw a bottle at. He longed for that wall, to hear the sound of glass falling to the alley below. Heard that sound so many times, when Steve did some damned fool thing. But he had to work with what he had now. 

The loons were still calling. They took the edge off, just a little. He rubbed his jaw, took deep breaths, listened to the breeze and the birds.

“But Bruce explained it to me,” Sam began, the confusion evident in his voice. “Bruce said you can’t change your past. He didn’t change your past. Or his.”

“I know. He just....he just wanted a do-over. Wanted a chance to do it right.”

“Man. A do-over for almost 80 years? That doesn’t actually change anything?” 

“Well, like I said. Stubborn.” He blinked away tears, swallowed the lump in his throat. He was used to this. To Steve almost dying for no good reason, to Steve not realizing what he was worth to others alive, to Steve throwing himself on the grenade every damned time (and he swallowed that one down too, when Peggy had told him about it back then. He might have thrown a few bottles at a few abandoned cottages after hearing about that damned fool stunt, though, come to think of it.)

“So, you know,” he said, once he was sure his voice wouldn’t betray him. “You take that shield, Sam? You don’t take the stupid with it. Promise?”

“Promise,” Sam replied gravely.

They both sat looking out over the lake. The sun had set, and the air had a chill to it. 

“Damn,” Sam muttered quietly.

Steve was still sitting on his bench. Bucky shivered, and Sam stood to go inside. “Go smack that boy,” he said, squeezing Bucky’s shoulder. Bucky gave him a wan smile and a nod.

Maybe now, Bucky thought. Maybe now Steve could rest. Maybe now he had finally purged the demons of guilt that had plagued him for the last decade. He looked peaceful. Finally.

Maybe they could be real friends again, now, without the ghosts of Steve’s perceived mistakes haunting them both.

“Hey, Stevie. You wanna freeze out here? I thought you’d had enough of ice.”

Steve turned with a smile. His face was lined, his movements a little shaky, but his eyes had that spark back. His Stevie, full of mischief, piss and vinegar. “Jerk.” 

“Punk.” He took Steve’s hand, waited for him to steady himself. Then he wrapped his arm around Steve’s waist. 

Steve huffed, even as he leaned into him. “I can do it myself, Buck.”

“Yeah, but you don’t have to.” He squeezed his friend. He wasn’t letting go this time. 

“Let’s go home, Stevie.”

“Sounds like a plan, Buck. Sounds like a plan.”

**Author's Note:**

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> So.
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> I loved the movie, but like many I really was dissatisfied with the ending--not so much for what was there, but what it lacked. Not that I minded a happy ending for Steve, or even that specific one (I guess?), but because they mostly ignored a central relationship that's canon in the MCU, that drives the conclusion of one movie and the entirety of another (imho one of the best in the whole MCU). That just makes no sense to me, and seems disrespectful of the relationships they'd established so well. So I wanted to work within this canon to see if I could find something that would be somewhat in character. I hope this works for those of you who care about these two, regardless of whether or not you actively ship them. This is my first Marvel fic, by the way. Hope I did these boys a little justice.


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